Brain, behavior, and immunity
July 2, 2026
Samuel C Woodburn, Alexander M Kuhn, Kelly E Bosis et al.
Ketamine promotes spine growth on the apical dendrites of pyramidal neurons in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which are critical for its behavioral effects. Follow-up studies show that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signaling is critical for these effects. In this context, we sought to determine if microglial BDNF contributes to the synaptic and behavioral effects of ketamine....
Journal of Clinical Investigation
November 19, 2019
Danielle M. Gerhard, Santosh Pothula, Rong-Jian Liu et al.
345 citations
A single sub-anesthetic dose of ketamine, an NMDA receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, produces rapid and sustained antidepressant actions in depressed patients, addressing a major unmet need for the treatment of mood disorders. Ketamine produces a rapid increase in extracellular glutamate and synaptic formation in the prefrontal cortex, but the initial cellular trigger that initiates these and its...
Neurobiology of Disease
November 7, 2019
Sriparna Ghosal, Catharine H. Duman, Rong-Jian Liu et al.
94 citations
Dysfunction of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in association with imbalance of inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmission has been implicated in depression. However, the precise cellular mechanisms underlying this imbalance, particularly for GABAergic transmission in the mPFC, and the link with the rapid acting antidepressant ketamine remains poorly understood. Here we determined the...
American Journal of Psychiatry
January 4, 2019
Satoshi Deyama, Eunyoung Bang, Eric S. Wohleb et al.
100 citations
OBJECTIVE: -methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist ketamine produces rapid and sustained antidepressant actions even in patients with treatment-resistant depression. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been implicated in the effects of conventional monoamine-based antidepressants, but the role of VEGF in the rapid antidepressant actions of ketamine remains unclear. The authors...
Current Neuropharmacology
March 10, 2016
Eric S. Wohleb, Danielle M. Gerhard, Alex Thomas et al.
148 citations
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent neuropsychiatric disease that causes profound social and economic burdens. The impact of MDD is compounded by the limited therapeutic efficacy and delay of weeks to months of currently available medications. These issues highlight the need for more efficacious and faster-acting treatments to alleviate the burdens of MDD. Recent breakthroughs...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
June 8, 2015
Manabu Fuchikami, Alexandra M. Thomas, Rongjian Liu et al.
282 citations
Ketamine produces rapid and sustained antidepressant actions in depressed patients, but the precise cellular mechanisms underlying these effects have not been identified. Here we determined if modulation of neuronal activity in the infralimbic prefrontal cortex (IL-PFC) underlies the antidepressant and anxiolytic actions of ketamine. We found that neuronal inactivation of the IL-PFC completely...